Every Morning is Easter Morning
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Romans 5:6-11
6. While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man -- though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. 8. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. 9. Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11. Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation.
I’ve read this passage many times. I get the point, in my head, each time I read it. It’s pretty much a defining statement about Christ, and the gift He gave us from God. This morning, though, I felt it in my heart. “While we were still weak.” We were powerless on our own. We could not live on our own. We couldn’t accomplish redemption on our own. And yet God loved us still. Even in that state of frailty, weakness, sin. Though our lives lacked purpose and direction. Though we focused only on ourselves and our own needs. Though we wandered lost and strong-willed and defiant. That’s when He chose to save us!
I don’t think Donald Trump adheres to that business plan! I’m not being critical of him--I’m just using his television program as an example of everything that is counter to the radical message of Jesus Christ! We are saved from our legacy of sin and shame through the death of Christ. His life shows us the way to the cross. His life modeled for us how to live in gratitude and awe of the God who loves us when we’re at our worse. I think about the times when I was sick as a child. Throwing up is so awful--but I remember my mom would comfort me and bring me ginger ale and put a cool cloth on my head--of course she had me in her bed with my two sisters -- who at some point also began to throw up! Isn’t is funny how something so awful invokes memories of love and comfort?
That’s how God is. That’s what Jesus demonstrated. That’s how Mother Theresa lived. Her ministry to the least and lost of India began on a day when she came upon a woman on the street who was dying. She sat and held the woman until she breathed her last. And the rest, as they say, is history. I think our human nature, before it’s stifled down and pushed aside by the world, is to respond to others like the mother of a sick child, or like Mother Theresa to a stranger, who she couldn’t bear to see die alone. That’s the message of Jesus. And we live it out through God’s power and in accordance with His plan for our lives.
Jesus changed all the rules. We had to start from scratch because of him. Demolition experts will probably tell us that’s the most cost-effective way to re-build a dilapidated building. Knock it down and start all over. Make it all like new. Eradicate any sign of the old, dingy, broken building . Build a new one up in its place. Each day we have a chance to begin anew. The old is wiped away. We are no longer slaves to our past. God doesn’t hold any of it against us. For Christians, every morning is Easter morning. Alleluia! He is Risen!
My prayer today is that you work with me to live out our legacy as an Easter people. And that you spread the good news of the resurrection to everyone in your path.
Mary
